Leaked U.S. list of critical Canadian sites stirs security concerns

OTTAWA – Canadian security experts say leaking a U.S. note about possible terror targets in Canada is like doing the extremists’ homework for them.

The WikiLeaks publication of an American diplomatic cable listing Canadian bridges, pipelines, power plants and other sensitive places vital to the United States is a worrying development, said Liberal Sen. Colin Kenny.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out some aspects of critical infrastructure. But there are other aspects you’d have to work at pretty hard, and you might not think about them,” said Kenny, who long served as chair of the Senate committee on national security.

“So I’m starting to get concerned. If this is the tenor of leaks coming, then we have a problem on our hands.”

WikiLeaks, determined to lift the veil on official secrets of American diplomacy, says as many as 2,648 documents about Canada are among the quarter-million it plans to release.

In the classified message, the U.S. State Department asked its worldwide posts to help update a list of sites “which, if destroyed, disrupted or exploited, would likely have an immediate and deleterious effect on the United States.”

Diplomats were advised not to consult host governments in carrying out the confidential task.

Attached was an extensive list compiled the previous year including dozens of Canadian installations — from obvious ones such as the massive James Bay power facility and the Darlington nuclear power plant in Ontario to lesser-known manufacturing and mining operations.

The Pentagon refused to comment Monday on the details of what it called stolen, classified documents. But a spokesman said the disclosure is “damaging” because it gives valuable information to terrorists.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff objected to WikiLeaks’ disclosure of what the U.S. considers key infrastructure.

“We’re going through a global experiment in the limits of freedom of information here and I think they just crossed the line.”

The leak is worrisome to a degree, but might prove to be a beneficial tonic, said lawyer and university instructor Ron Atkey, a former chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, which keeps an eye on Canada’s spy agency CSIS.

“This is a more comprehensive list than I have ever seen. And I suppose in our wildest imagination that WikiLeaks has done the terrorists a favour because they’ve done their homework for them. And in that sense it’s bad, and it is a violation of national security,” Atkey said.

But the revelation is unlikely to be “hugely damaging to Canada or to the U.S.,” he added. “It’s not cataclysmic.”

Atkey believes it might actually spur a healthy debate in Canada about whether these sites are adequately protected. The cable will heighten the public’s interest because people will take note of projects close to where they live, he said.

“This, I think, will jar people into saying, ‘Hey, we do have facilities that are of strategic importance in the world, and we better make sure that our security protections are in place.”‘

NDP Leader Jack Layton didn’t see any cause for alarm.

“I don’t think there are any surprises on that list of sites,” he said. “I think that those responsible for security in Canada have always been aware of where the dangerous spots might be and I have no doubt that there are plans for those locations.”